Joey DeFrancesco, Up Close And Personal (at PM Woodwind, Evanston IL - June 11, 2022)

 

Anyone who is semi-serious about playing a musical instrument needs to have a skilled professional in their network to tweak, repair and improve their equipment. I know a very good brass repair guy in the Chicago area (Dana Hofer); he helped me reincarnate my tenor and bass trombones earlier this year. I also know several harmonica technicians that do the painstaking work of fixing up my beat-up chromatic harmonicas. For saxophones and other woodwind instruments, the top dude around is Paul Maslin of PM Woodwind in Evanston IL.  Tucked away on a side street just west of the commuter rail tracks, PM Woodwind is perhaps the world's best source of saxophone repair services and deep woodwind knowledge. Paul collects and re-sells rare instruments, too. Great players from all over the U.S. and beyond seek out help from PM Woodwind.  Not surprisingly. Paul Maslin is a killer saxophonist and all of his repair folks also play. To truly understand and customize an instrument, you must know how to play it.

PM Woodwind has a side room at their store front, a small space used for lessons and rehearsals of local groups. Paul's stature among sax players is substantial, and several major names have stopped by to conduct free master classes/performances in that space. I suspect they do this to stay in the good graces of this sax repair guru. Tower of Power's horn section played there and so has Ravi Coltrane (John Coltrane's offspring) and Dave Liebman.  These events generally attract other sax players; I managed to sneak into one earlier this month because my partner is an awesome flutist who knows Paul well. The featured artist was Joey DeFrancesco aka Joey D.

If you know nothing about Joey D, I feel a little sorry for you. He has been called a modern Mozart, started playing the organ at 4 years old and had his own band by the time he was 10. Columbia Records signed him when he was 16 years old. Miles Davis hired Joey D  when he was 17 to play in one of the last Miles Davis groups.   Joey D is a giant that rejuvenated the Hammond B3 organ jazz idiom. Since he is such an insatiable, questing musical force, he has picked up other instruments - trumpet and, more recently, saxophone.  Oh, and Joey sings, too.  Mr. DeFrancesco has had prodigious output - 39 records as a leader and work with a broad range of musicians, from Elvin Jones and James Moody to Ray Charles and Van Morrison.

He came to PM Woodwind to play sax; no organ on the premises (and no trumpet, either).  Joey D's interest in the sax is partly genetic - his grandfather played the instrument. Joey D fooled around with the horn in the 1990's with limited success. He set it down for 25 years. In 2019, he recorded some tunes with the great tenor sax man, Pharaoh Saunders, and said "I gotta play sax now."  The man has an insane work ethic and started shedding like a madman.  By the time he got to the PM Woodwind side room on June 11, he could go toe-to-toe with almost any jazz tenor sax player around. It was a stunning display by a guy that has only been playing sax seriously for 3 years.

PM Woodwind can only hold a small audience, but very knowledgeable and enthusiastic folks were in attendance.  Since it was a master class, Joey D took questions. One of the more remarkable things he said - he doesn't read music very well and mostly plays by ear/by memory. He also said that the trumpet is the "least forgiving instrument" that he plays. The brass player's embouchure requires constant work to stay functional - a week off and the muscles begin to atrophy.  Since I play trombone, I know what he said is true. He also told us that his wife is his business manager, and that he couldn't be very successful without her guidance and expertise.

It was a very intense 90 minutes, and then Joey D split for his gig at the Jazz Showcase in downtown Chicago. This guy has been playing professionally for 41 years and he is only 51. He is still in the 4th or 5th inning of his game. It's hard for me to wrap my head around that factoid.

So if you didn't know Joey D, now you know. 

Liquid Soul is Back and Boy, Do We Need This Band.

 

Liquid Soul is a Chicago-based ensemble that was launched around 1993 - they are approaching the 30th anniversary of the group's birth. The picture above captures a fraction of the group - the horn section, which includes Mars Williams on saxophones, John Janowiak on trombone and Ron Haynes on trumpet.  This has always been a large ensemble - guitar, bass, drums, turntablist and two rappers/singers backed the horns on June 9, 2022 when the group played at SPACE in my hometown of Evanston IL.  I was there and it was an uplifting event, ice water breaking the long dry spell created by this pandemic.

Mars Williams and DJ Jesse De La Pena formed Liquid Soul after meeting up at the Elbo Room in the early 1990's. They gathered up some other musicians and hip hop artists and started playing as Liquid Soul on Sunday nights. Word of the group's unique make-up and sound spread quickly, and Liquid Soul had to move to a larger venue (the Double Door in the Wicker Park neighborhood in Chicago).  The Liquid Soul smash-up of hard bop, free jazz, jazz fusion, funk, R&B,  and hip hop was labeled as acid jazz, which launched in London during the 1980's. British DJ's were adding beats and electronics to classic jazz tunes from the 1950's and 1960's, and these very danceable grooves became popular in the dance clubs of London. The acid jazz "movement" didn't hit the U.S. until the early 1990's, and Liquid Soul caught the wave. They band almost made it into the mainstream. The group released its first album in 1996, and Liquid Soul's second record, "Here's the Deal,"  was nominated for a Grammy as "Best Contemporary Jazz Album: in 2001. They opened for Sting at Central Park in New York. They played the Newport Jazz Festival. 

In the late 1990's, Liquid Soul was everywhere in Chicago. They attracted a huge following at Elbo Room and Double Door - the professional athletes (Bears & Bulls) liked to hang out when they were playing. They played at Dennis Rodman's birthday party.  It was Camelot from a musical perspective. Liquid Soul was the Midwest version of acid jazz/hip hop - unique, extremely musical, danceable, crazy creative and improvisational!!!!

The band flirted with a breakthrough, but Mars Williams got a gig with Psychedelic Furs around 2003. Liquid Soul was a huge ensemble, it was expensive to tour and the music did not attract a massive following - the acid jazz/jam band folks loved it, but that isn't a huge audience. The band broke up for a while and re-formed. It has performed sporadically over the past 15 years or so. They have come out of the Covid pandemic slowdown and are playing gigs again around the Chicago area. 

They band was great on June 9, but OMG they were LOUD!! SPACE is a small room. I turned on my sound meter app on my phone and the levels hit 115 decibels!!  That is almost as loud as a chainsaw at close range. I blame the sound man at SPACE for this. Liquid Soul is not really a super loud band, but a huge sound system in a small room leads to hearing damage. I had to wear earplugs, which messed up the sound of the band.

I was delighted that they played their hip-hop version of Salt Peanuts on June 9. Here is the video of that tune, featuring Kurt Elling at the beginning.

This group is still totally relevant, and I hope they have great success.

Female Trombonists - Rita Payés

This is my second post regarding female trombonists. I have talked about Melba Liston, the trailblazing artist that paved the way for so many female jazz musicians. Now I turn to another, much younger, trailblazer.

Rita Payés is the type of artist that causes jaws to hit the floor. She was born into a musical family, in Catalan, Spain - her mother, Elisabeth Roma, is an outstanding classical and jazz guitarist, steeped in Latin music (bossa nova, fado, boleros and more). Rita started out on piano but for some reason, she decided to try the trombone. Some people have a natural affinity for a specific instrument, and I suspect that this young woman instinctively knew how to play this horn. Of course, she must have put in many hours of practice, but her facility and tone sound like they come from a deep place, beyond intellect and scale exercises. 

Oh, and Rita sings. And plays guitar. Her cup of talent runneth over. Her vocals are sweet and wistful. The combination of her voice, her mother's guitar and quiet accompaniment from other compassionate musicians creates an almost magical experience. Here's an example of Rita's artistry.  Her voice is delicate and sensitive, but not weak. She covers the entire range of the trombone and the musical ideas that she sends through the horn are full of yearning.  

Rita is 22 years old. She released her first record when she was 16.  She plays around Europe, mostly in Spain and France. I don't think she has toured North America, which is a huge loss for lovers of great music that live on this continent.  I have never visited Spain, but now I must.  I need to hear Rita play and sing.